Jeffrey Epstein Found Dead in Manhattan Jail Cell

View of Manhattan Correctional Center, where Financier Jeffrey Epstein was found on Saturday to have died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York, according to a former law enforcement official.

Jeffrey Epstein, the investor who faced federal charges of molesting teenage girls, has died, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

The financier was found hanged in his Lower Manhattan jail cell in an apparent suicide, ABC News and other media outlets reported, citing law enforcement officials they didn’t identify.

A gurney carrying a man who looked like Epstein was wheeled out of the Manhattan Correctional Center around 7:30 a.m., the New York Post reported. There was no immediate public confirmation of his death.

Epstein had previously been moved to a suicide-watch unit after being found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck on July 23, a week after his bail request had been rejected.

“The coward and serial predator may have taken his own life but we shall continue to seek justice on behalf of our clients,” Josh Schiller, a lawyer for some of Epstein’s alleged victims, said in a text message.

Epstein’s death came less than a day after a court unsealed documents alleging he and a friend sent a woman to have sex with a former governor, a former U.S. senator and an asset manager when she was a minor. All of them said the allegations were false.

A self-described “collector” of rich and powerful people, Epstein had links to a Who’s Who of prominent political and business figures. That circle, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and billionaire Leslie Wexner, all distanced themselves from the financier after his arrest in July.

The network was partly chronicled in Epstein’s address book, stolen by a staff member around 2005 and published by gossip website Gawker in 2015. The hundreds of names included Clinton and future President Donald Trump, who are among people known to have socialized with him.

U.S. prosecutors said Epstein used his wealth and power to sexually abuse dozens of young girls for years at his homes, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for each encounter and hundreds more if they brought in more victims.

Read: Epstein Sent Girl to Governor and Senator for Sex, She Said

The alleged crimes occurred at Epstein’s residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, from 2002 to 2005, involving minors as young as 14. The U.S. accused Epstein of “creating a vast network of victims.”

Epstein pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking in minors and conspiracy and said he fully complied with the law for more than 14 years.

His latest arrest came after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of soliciting prostitution and served 13 months in prison, after U.S. prosecutors in that state agreed not to charge him with federal offenses.

The agreement provoked outrage after the Miami Herald published an investigative series on it in late 2018 that led to the resignation of President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, who as U.S. attorney in Miami at the time worked out the deal with Epstein’s lawyers.

His business operations attracted less attention even as federal prosecutors put his net worth at more than $500 million, and said he had an income of more than $10 million a year.

Wall Street Connections

Epstein left little imprint on the financial markets but leveraged his connections with Wall Street to secure a steady flow of commissions and engagements that supported a lifestyle that included properties in New Mexico, Paris and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he bought two private islands. He liked to shuttle between them by private jet and had at least 15 cars, according to federal authorities.

Epstein based much of his empire in the Virgin Islands, including Financial Trust Co., which he started in New York in 1981 as a money management firm called J. Epstein & Co. that he claimed catered only to billionaires.

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